Wizard Willy

Your Sinclair

Overall 68%

Marcus Berkmann 68%

BARGAIN BASEMENT A bit short of the readies? Low on the folding stuff? Totally borassic? Then pop down the Bargain Basement with Marcus Berkmann, and see what goes "Cheep!" (Eh? Ed). WIZARD WILLY Cartoon Time £2.99 Reviewer: Marcus Berkmann This is one CodeMasters' new games for younger players - so it says here - but actually Wizard Willy is quite a gas for any age-group. As usual you are the last hope of some inconsiderate victim who's been trapped somewhere far away - ie at least 8 billion screens to the right. Willy (fnar) therefore has to wander along a monochrome landscape collecting various useful things and killing things that are less useful. Sounds a familiar tale, doesn't it? But thanks to some neat perspective graphics and a few nice ideas here and there - more to do with presentation, admittedly, than actual gameplay - Wizard Willy manages to rise above the mundane. A few low platforms, make the game more than one-dimensional, and the whole shebang has been executed with great care and a certain style. The only downside is that it's sometimes hard to make out what precisely is going on - the graphics can become a little indistinct. But it's not a disastrous flaw, and indeed not quite knowing what's going on is an intrinsic part of the game. Neat for sprogs, and not bad for older gamesters either.

Crash

Overall 42%

Nick Roberts 42%

Happpeeee Nineties! Feeling the pinch from the recent festive season? Never fear, here's DJ Nicko to take you for a spin through this month's offerings on the cheaper side... WIZARD WILLY Cartoon Time £2.99 Fifi the fairy has gone and got caught and trapped in the Emperor's fortress (oh no!), and Wizard Willy is her only hope of escape (my hero!). You take on his role and must jump and climb through the enchanted forest, enter the dungeons and climb up the castle battlements to rescue her. On the way you'll have to collect ten of the magic eyes, and when yaw reach the end of the level the guardian skull has to be beaten! Another cartoon adventure from Cartoon Time but compared to Olli and Lissa 3 this is dire. The sprites all (look like they've been badly cult out of a newspaper and stuck on the screen. They have a chunky border round the outside. The monochrome doesn't help things, and with a detailed background you can't tell what's going on half the time. You're supposedly meant to dodge the exploding traps that litter the path: I tried jumping over them, but no matter how well I did it I always exploded (it got a bit messy!). There are things you can collect to improve Willy's performance, like a vanish spell to zap all monsters on screen, magic power to give extra lightning bolts and energy. These don't make the game any more playable though. I was very disappointed with Wizard Willy, with plenty of better games around at the same price. This is a big let down.